RECORD INCOMES FOR WOOL GROWERS IN NEW ZEALAND

Grey River Argus, 19 July 1949, Page 2

RECORD INCOMES FOR WOOL GROWERS IN NEW ZEALAND

P.A. WELLINGTON, July 18 The New Zealand’s wool cheque for the 1948-49 season reached the record figure of £30,955,000 sterling, according to the figures released today by the New Zealand Wool Brokers’ Association. This figure compares with £29,352,000 in 194748. Compared with ten years ago this cheque is greater by more than twenty millions sterling The total was £9,221,000 in 1938-39. In 1939-31, when the wool market felt the full effect of the depression, the total return for the Dominion was £3,498,000. The total number of bales sold during the season just ended was 858,275, compared to 827,432 in 194748. The average price per bale was a record at £36 Is 4d (£35 9s 6d in 1947-48), and the average price per lb was also a record at 25.811 pence (25.137 pence)

The following figures compare the. results at each of the main wool selling centres: — Auckland: Bales sold, 125,010; average price per bale, £3l 19s; Napier, 150,57 bales; £32 19s Id; Wanganui: 97.029 bales, £32 9s 8d; Wellington: 119,672 bales; £34 14s lOd; Christchurch: 111,597 bales; £44 0s 2s; Timaru: 56,057 bales; £43 0s 6d; Dunedin, 108,913 bales; £39 11s lOd; Invercargill: 88,358 bales; £34 5s Bd. The premium paid for fine, wools is reflected in a higher price average that was obtained in the South Island ,and notably at Christchurch, which is the main fine wool centre of New Zealand. The average for crossbred wools, mainly a product of the North Island, kept within a limited range at the four main northern sales.

The record price for the Dominion for the 1948-49 season was in the vicinity of seven shillings per lb., a sale being reported at ' Timaru at 84- pence, and one at Christchurch at eighty-three pence—in both cases for merino wool.